Qu, Y.; Ji, Z.

An accurate gene set for cellular senescence is crucial for identifying and studying senescent cells in single-cell RNA-seq datasets. We integrated nine existing senescence gene sets and identified a core senescence gene set comprising four genes: CDKN1A, CDKN2A, IL6, and CDKN2B. We found that these genes are ubiquitously associated with cellular senescence across human and mouse tissues. Using this gene set, we identified cell types enriched with senescent cells and cell-cell communication targets and pathways associated with cellular senescence in human and mouse single-cell datasets.